At the CARDI project facilities, on May 27, around 130 members of the Secular Augustinian Recollect Fraternity, belonging to eight communities different from Querétaro, Morelos, State of Mexico and Mexico City.
The Secular Augustinian Recollect Fraternity in central Mexico celebrated its Pentecost retreat, welcomed in the facilities of the Center for Accompaniment and Comprehensive Development Recovery (CARDI), in Colonia Hospitales, as well as in the nearby parish church of Our Lady of Guadalupe.
Around 130 members of the Secular Fraternity attended the convocation, many dressed in red for the festival of the Holy Spirit. They came from the Secular Fraternities of Querétaro, Morelos (Cuernavaca), State of Mexico (Tecamachalco) and Mexico City —the hostess, Hospitals, along with Avante, Churubusco, Postulantado San Agustín and Santa Mónica.
The hosts prepared with care and affection, and with an outstanding note, everything so that the celebration was dignified and fluid: reception, inscriptions, banners, decoration, opening prayer, accommodation of spaces, liturgy, coffee, tamales, food…
The National Council of Secular Fraternities in Mexico once again advised and ensured that the retreat ran in the best possible way and the participants reaped the best fruit spiritual possible.
For its part, the Fraternity of Saint Monica prepared a prayer dynamic inspired by the gifts and fruits of the Holy Spirit, which was later deepened by groups.
At the time of registration all participants received a badge with the logo of the meeting, the Holy Spirit descending on the Secular Fraternity, as well as the text of the sequence of the Holy Spirit, the liturgical poem that is read before the Gospel in the celebration of Pentecost.
The reflections that were presented in the CARDI auditorium were Christified by the Spirit, from Augustinian Recollect Orlando Villalobos, and The Reconciling Holy Spirit in the Theology of St. Augustine, from the Augustinian Recollect Alfredo Leitón. Both presentations aroused feelings of reconciliation and enthusiasm, encouraging commitment and requesting the help of the Holy Spirit.
There were breaks to have a coffee and encourage conviviality, and the meal was organized in a that everyone brought something to share with others. There were also photo sessions, which they serve to remember and comment.
The retreat ended with a Eucharist presided over by the president of the Secretariat of Spirituality and Permanent Formation of the Province of Saint Nicolás of Tolentine, Sergio Sánchez, concelebrated by the religious assistants of the Fraternities present.
The day left a good taste in the mouth and the certainty that the Spirit passed and left the fire of his love, his joy and his peace, as well as the commitment to put his gifts at the service of others to recreate the fruits of it.
